Put your budget where your customers are, at the moments that matter.

Media planning is the process of deciding where, when and how often your advertising should appear to reach the right audience at the right cost. It involves defining objectives, understanding your audience, choosing channels and formats, allocating budget, setting timings and agreeing how results will be measured. A good media plan balances reach and frequency, brand building and direct response, and proven channels with room to test. The aim is to make sure every pound of media spend has a clear purpose and contributes to a measurable business goal.

Media planning decides the strategy: which audiences to reach, which channels to use, how much to spend and when. Media buying puts that plan into action by purchasing placements, setting up campaigns, negotiating rates and managing delivery. In digital channels the two are closely linked, because buying happens in real time through platforms and results come back quickly. At Vertical the same team handles both, which means the plan can be adjusted as soon as the data shows what is and is not working.

A media planning agency helps you invest your advertising budget wisely. At Vertical that includes audience research, channel selection, budget allocation, flighting, campaign setup, buying, optimisation and reporting across paid social, search, programmatic display, online video, audio and out of home. Because we also produce creative and run CRM, we can make sure the right assets appear in each placement and that customer data informs targeting. The result is a single, joined-up plan rather than separate channels competing for attention and budget.

We plan across the main digital channels, including Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google and Microsoft search, YouTube, programmatic display and video, connected TV and digital audio. Where it suits the objective we also plan out of home and other offline media through trusted partners. We are channel neutral, so recommendations are based on where your audience is and what the campaign needs to achieve rather than on which platforms we prefer. Each channel in the plan has a defined role and measure of success.

We start with your goals, margins and customer lifetime value to understand what you can afford to pay for a result. We then look at audience size, channel costs, historic performance and the role each channel plays in the funnel. That produces a forecast for reach, frequency and outcomes by channel. We keep part of the budget for testing and review allocation regularly, moving money towards what performs best once live results arrive, so the plan stays efficient throughout the campaign.

Reach is the number of different people who see your advertising, and frequency is how many times on average each person sees it. Both matter. Too little frequency and your message may not be remembered, while too much leads to wasted spend and annoyed audiences. The right balance depends on the objective, the complexity of the message and the channel. We plan reach and frequency targets for each campaign, then monitor them during delivery and adjust targeting or caps when they drift.

We agree KPIs before the campaign starts, matched to its objective, such as new customers, cost per acquisition, return on ad spend, reach or brand lift. We check that tracking and attribution are set up correctly, then report regularly on results by channel, audience and creative. Where budgets allow we use incrementality testing, such as geographic or holdout tests, to understand what media is genuinely adding rather than claiming credit for sales that would have happened anyway. That gives you a more honest basis for future budgets.

Flighting is the pattern of when your advertising runs. Some campaigns work best as always-on activity, others as concentrated bursts around launches, seasonal peaks or sales, and many use a mix of both. Good flighting matches spend to the moments when your customers are most likely to be in market and avoids wasting budget when demand is low. We build flighting around your trading calendar, product launches and stock levels, then adjust it as live performance and market conditions change.

Yes. Most businesses need both, and the strongest plans connect them. Brand activity builds awareness and makes future customers more likely to choose you, while performance activity captures people who are ready to buy. We plan the balance between the two based on your goals, category and stage of growth, and measure each with appropriate metrics. Over time we look at how brand investment affects performance results, such as branded search and conversion rates, so you can see the full picture.

Yes. Our creative team produces static, video and motion assets sized and adapted for each channel and placement in the plan. Planning media and creative together means formats are chosen with the creative in mind and assets are built for how people actually see them, whether that is a vertical video on social or a banner on a news site. We also test creative variations during the campaign and feed what we learn into the next round of production and the next media plan.

We use AI agents to analyse audience data, model budget scenarios, monitor pacing and frequency and flag performance changes across channels. That means problems are spotted earlier and our planners spend more time on decisions and less on gathering data. Agents draft recommendations, such as moving budget between channels or adjusting audiences, but nothing changes in your campaigns until our team has reviewed and approved it. AI adds speed and coverage, while experienced people stay accountable for every decision we make with your budget.